just once
by deceptivelycomplex3925
Summary: Prompt fill. High school AU. I forgot to post it here as well the other day when I wrote it.


"Emma, I can't fit that in my purse - stop it."

Emma clicks her tongue when Regina swats at her and she sighs forlornly as she tosses the bag of kettle cooked chips in the back seat of her bug before closing the door with a loud groan of protest from the hinges and locking it.

"They could have fit," Emma says petulantly as she catches up to the group, coming up on Regina's left. Robin's got an arm around her waist on the other side of her and Emma winds her arm around Killian's to her left, squeezing at his bicep through the leather of his jacket, a habit of hers she finds oddly comforting.

Regina just shakes her head and adjusts her purse from where Emma had been yanking at it to get the bag to fit - which, it _totally_ would have if Regina would've just given her like a few more seconds, gosh.

"They're disgusting anyway, honestly I don't know how you can eat them," she grimaces and Robin chuckles beside her.

Emma feigns outrage and stumbles backward into Killian for added effect, his hands instinctively going to her hips to keep her steady - Emma notices Regina's eyes darting to the movement but it's like a whisper in her mind, something she barely cognizes but still files away for later analysis and she's still trying to act affronted at the slight against her favorite chips.

"Did you just - did you just call my chips _disgusting_?" Her hand comes up to her heart. "Yep. No. I'm no longer sharing my popcorn with you. You're dead to me - I'm ripping up our friendship card."

Robin opens the door for all of them and Regina rolls her eyes and gives her a wry tick of her lips and Emma bites back a smile of her own, her eyes definitely not tipping down to take in Regina's jean clad, _amazing_ -

Nope. Definitely not.

* * *

So, it's Killian, Emma, Regina, and then Robin in the sixth row and they're watching the new Jurassic Park movie because hello, Chris Pratt controlling velociraptors? Fuck yes.

"I still like the 1997 version better," Regina murmurs halfway through, Emma's fingers meeting nothing but kernel and bag. She frowns and then glares at the handful of popcorn in Regina's fist.

"You just like it because of Julianne." She steals four pieces from Regina and shoves them in her mouth before she can protest and Emma gives a closed mouth grin around her crunching, victorious.

Regina glares, sighs, and hands her the rest of the popcorn, rolling her eyes, before turning toward the movie once more.

"Well, at least I have good taste in women," Regina whispers in her ear a minute later.

And yeah, Emma had been taking a sip of her coke, and yeah, she kind of just choked and sputtered and is now coughing up a lung and Regina's laughing quietly and Robin's asking Regina if she's alright and Killian's patting between her shoulder blades with a look of concern and she waves her hand in a "I'm fine, totally fine" manner before tapping Killian's knee to let her up and shaking her head when he asks if she needs him to come with her.

She makes it to the water fountain outside the bathroom just as it feels like her throat is peeling and her nostrils are burning and she takes a few deep, slow inhales before cursing under her breath when she stretches out her v neck and there's coke all down the front of it. Oh, and it's on her favorite pair of jeans too. Awesome.

She's going to kill Regina.

She's trying (totally just further ruining) to get the coke stains out of her _white_ tee and _light-washed_ jeans when she hears a low chuckle behind her.

She glares at Regina through the reflection in the bathroom mirrors and tosses the brown paper towel she'd been using in the tin garbage can beside her.

"You're buying me a new pair of jeans," Emma grumbles, wetting her hand and using it to scrub at a rather large spot on her left thigh.

"I'm not the one who spilled coke all over them," Regina says through soft laughter.

"No, you're just an asshole."

She looks up to see Regina's got her arms crossed, a hip cocked, and god _damnit_ she looks really fucking sexy like that. Ope, and there's that eyebrow arch too.

"How am I the asshole in this situation?"

Emma waves her hands about, trying to keep her face from going red.

She's 101% sure she's failing.

"The, you know...what you said...the comment about - "

"I was only stating a fact," Regina says, sounding highly amused.

Oh, great. And yeah, Emma's face is definitely red.

 _Ugh_. Regina's _such_ an asshole.

And wait - is she implying something here?

"Wait, are you saying that I _don't_ have good taste in women?"

Regina gives her a look and wow, okay, well _that's_ just fucking rude.

"Um, excuse me, I have excellent taste in women."

"Name one."

"Charlize Theron."

Regina clicks her tongue. "Too tall." What even?

"Anna Kendrick."

"Too short." Oh, come _on_. Also, Regina is 5'4". In what the hell universe does she think Anna is too short?

Apparently this one. Emma barely restrains an eye roll.

"Hey, hey now. Don't be bashing on my wife. She may be small but she's feisty. Also, you're like maybe 2 inches taller than her."

This time Regina's eye roll is massive and Emma bites at the inside of her lip, it doing nothing to hinder her smile.

"Exactly. Too short. And I still hate you for making me go see that movie."

"Oh my god, how can you - you do realize you're like the only person on this planet who doesn't like Pitch Perfect. Or Anna Kendrick."

Emma's given up on her jeans and shirt and her and Regina are just standing across from one another, arguing about...their taste in women? With their actual boyfriends just down the hall.

"I never said I didn't like her. I just think Brittany Snow is much sexier. Everyone's always obsessing over Anna and honestly, if Brittany wasn't in that movie I wouldn't have allowed you to drag me here to see it."

It's then that the particular topic of their conversation finally seems to register with Regina and she averts her eyes to the wall, her cheeks flushing. She clears her throat and makes a show of walking up beside Emma and fixing her totally perfect not messed up at _all_ eye liner.

Emma feels her grin splitting her face in two.

"You totally have a thing for red heads," and it's like _holy shit Regina is bisexual_ and Emma feels her heartbeat in the palms of her hands because like, she'd known. She'd had this hunch for a while, but Regina'd always just denied it or ignored her questions and done the whole "I have a boyfriend" thing - as if that totally doesn't just solidify Emma's (gentle...kind of) accusation.

But oh my god, oh my god.

"And you have a thing for scruffy halfwits with an affinity for cheap leather."

Emma's smile widens. She didn't deny it this time. _Progress_ , Emma thinks.

"Yeah, but I also have a thing for women. Hot women, I might add. I'm just upfront with it. Unlike you."

Regina scoffs at her and gives her one of those patented glares that Emma actually _really_ doesn't mind.

Like at all.

"Well, not all of us have parents who are so accepting of _that_ particular part of them."

Emma's immediately sobered and she gives Regina's upper arm a sympathetic squeeze.

Regina is tense under her fingers but then she releases a long breath and sags against the sink, her hands gripping at the marble, head tipping forward, long dark curls falling over her shoulders.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

Regina meets her eyes in the mirror and she smiles softly, eyes almost glistening. And she's seen this smile before. Twice. And both times it had been directed at her.

And Emma's pretty sure something's just shifted in the air between them because Regina's turned toward her and now they're just staring, blue-green and russet flickering back and forth between the other, but then. Then Regina glances down and it's for longer than a second and Emma sucks in a sharp breath and _ohgodohgodohgod_.

And it's just when Emma starts to lean in with Regina, Regina's eyes on Emma's lips and Emma's eyes on Regina's, that she jerks away, her hand shooting up to her mouth in what Emma thinks is shock.

"Robin an - we - we have boyfriends," Regina says, a little breathless. She isn't looking at Emma anymore.

Emma takes a step forward. Regina's eyes snap up.

And there's this moment. This one, tiny (or maybe it's something colossal, something so big it can't ever be ignored - though she knows Regina will try her very, very hardest) moment where their eyes lock and stay locked. Where Regina's eyes waver, glance down again, where Emma sees it. Sees what she thought was always just her imagination over the few years she's known Regina.

She sees want. She sees _longing_.

And if Regina is going to ignore the conversation they've already had, she might as well just go all out hadn't she?

So she licks her lips, stares at Regina's scar for a second, and then takes another step forward, a small one. One that puts her a hair's breadth away. Regina inhales sharply. Emma watches her lips part.

Emma forgets about Robins and Killians and mothers who are rigid and cold. Emma forgets about morals and blue eyes wrought with betrayal and sadness. Emma forgets about the guilt that's already started to wriggle its way into her bloodstream.

Emma forgets about everything but this beautiful girl standing in front of her.

"Just once," Emma whispers. And _god_ , she's throwing herself in the flames. She's actually just punched the beast right in it's frothing mouth and she's a _fucking idiot_ but she knows this already (Regina likes to remind her daily) and honestly, Regina smells _really_ fucking good, something like flowers and a hint of vanilla musk, and her lips are right _there_ and when her eyes flicker up to Regina's, to gauge her reaction, Regina's still staring at her lips.

There's an almost imperceptible nod and the hesitant hovering of a hand just over Emma's right hip.

"Just once," Regina rasps and _oh_ , Emma's never felt more an idiot than when, once it's done, once she's kissed her - twice, actually. But it wasn't her who'd grabbed at her hips and smashed their lips together the second time. It was Regina - she's left alone in the bathroom, her heart under her scuffed up chucks and her fingers dancing over kiss bruised lips.

It wasn't flames she'd thrown herself into. Not the jaws of a hungry, insatiable beast, even. No.

She'd just stranded herself in the middle of the goddamn ocean.

And it's kind of numbing, watching Regina's back as she walks away. Because she's going to have to pretend like nothing happened. She's going to have to act like her whole world hadn't just shifted on its axis at the first brush of Regina's lips against her own. She's going to have to kiss Killian later.

She's going to have to see Regina every day and not be able to kiss _her_. She's going to have to watch her with Robin. She's going to have to fucking see her _every goddamn day_ and not be able to kiss her again.

And that saying. That really cliched one. It comes to her then. Runs itself like a record, broken and scratchy, in her mind.

 _Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink._

She's an idiot.

An idiot who's just realized how fucking in love with Regina Mills she is.

 _Fuck_.


End file.
